Bring the Classic Sonic to Sonic the Hedgehog 4

After 6 months, I've decided to close the petition. This is because we now have a lot of signatures, and Sonic 4's release is looming so time is short. It has been appropriately formatted and will be faxed onto SEGA very soon.

I would like to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who took the time to sign this petition, as well as to those of you who helped to advertise it all over the Internet.

SEGA recently said that they have "heard" us. Now is the time to see if they have actually listened.

I will of course update this page should I hear anything back from SEGA. In the meantime, we'll just have to keep watching as updates about this game are released.

Regards,
Jen

Petition Background (Preamble):

Dear SEGA,

The design of your most iconic character, Sonic the Hedgehog, has changed drastically over the years. The new Sonic – slim, green-eyed and with long quills - is a far cry from the old, chubby, black-eyed Sonic of days gone by. This is of course the nature of character evolution, and we accept this.

We welcome the recent announcement that, after 16 years, Sonic 3 & Knuckles (arguably the pinnacle of the Sonic the Hedgehog series) is to get a sequel in the form of the downloadable game, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I. We are happy to see Sonic returning to his roots, but one detail in this retro revival is something that we cannot agree with – the use of Sonic’s new design.

We accept the modern mechanics of the game such as the homing attack – one could argue this is natural progression, with each 2D Sonic game of the past introducing a new ability for Sonic.

However, if this game truly is to be the sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, we feel that it should feature the same Sonic design as was featured in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and its predecessors. We believe that the addition of the modern Sonic design does not make sense in terms of the continuity – it would be illogical to change the design of the main character in an immediate sequel to this game. We believe that it is a very good idea to make a retro Sonic game, but without the original design, this might as well be Sonic Advance 4 or Sonic Rush 3; whilst the Sonic Advance and Rush series were games that many people enjoyed, but they were not retro.

We are not asking you to remove the modern Sonic design from Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Petition:

We, the undersigned, simply request that you give us the option to play as the Classic Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Episode I and all other future Episodes) – as downloadable content, unlockable content, or through any other means that you see fit.

We believe this would make the game appeal to more of a mass market, as the new fans would be able to play as the modern Sonic that they know and love, and the old fans would be able to play as the classic Sonic that they grew up with and cherish.

We believe that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 should be true to its predecessors in spirit, and that the character design is a huge part of this.

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